What an enigma you are Paul Pommes - Perhaps you can find it in yourself to speak volumes to the Prince of Orange.
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Can UK cancel Brexit? Not now…
Time to resurrect this thread (in case anyone had forgotten about it)
Well it would appear that Covid-19 has had the desired effect (on me, at least,) as I’d forgotten all about the potential shitstorm ahead…
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I still believe the UK will rejoin. I give it 10 years max.
Apart from the fact that UK young people are strongly in favour of the EU - and seem to be increasingly so - globalisation is going to reverse, for a whole range of reasons. The world is already breaking up into regional trading blocks. Climate/ecological breakdown will accelerate this trend - long distance trade and travel will become increasingly expensive and unacceptable - electric overland and short haul flights and sea crossings are not far off - Brittany Ferries are introducing their first hybrid ship now. Long haul without fossil fuels, however, is still a long way in the future. The UK is literally surrounded by EU and EEA countries, with which its interactions will have to increase, not decrease - and the case for being in a single market with them - already strong - is just going to get stronger and stronger.
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And there are fairies at the bottom of my garden. 
Your fairies may well be past their sell by date.
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More like 20 years minimum.
Especially if we align ourselves to US standards.
Part of the problem is that we cannot go back to our old status, our old opt outs and exceptional arrangements - the recent polls showing support for the EU have asked which way people would vote were the referendum re-run. But that is a very different prospect to asking people whether they would support rejoining the EU.
If you replaced rejoin the EU in 10 years with re-join the SM in 10 years the idea might have more credence - and even that will require no close adherence to US standards in the near future (perhaps those faeries could see if they can vote Trump out as a first step).
But your analysis here Paul assumes there won’t be huge changes to our economies and lifestyles in the next 10 years anyway - this is not going to happen. Either governments etc will make huge changes, or there will be social disintegration in response to climate/ecological breakdown.
I think you make another incorrect assumption too - that the UK and US are sufficiently culturally similar to allow the uncritical adoption of US standards, but again this is not the case - it will turn into a long-running sore. For all its biases and stupidities, the UK media, for instance, is structurally different from the US, and will go into campaign mode when American food standards start making British people ill (and they really do already make Americans ill).
On the latter point I I hope that you are right but the Brexiteers are so welded to the idea that a UK-US trade deal will be our saviour (or their opportunity to make a killing) that there is a high chance it will be done whatever the cost and whatever the opinion of the public. We have already seen significant back-tracking on the “no reduction in food standards” promise and we can see how the government views public opinion (viz 6 million signatures counting for nothing but plenty of other evidence).
On the former point - well, yes - but that is tangential to our re-joining the EU
I am not sure who you are calling ‘faeries’.
It needs the Democrats to get out and vote and all those who are increasingly disgusted with Trump to leave their allegiances behind and vote for the good of the country.
You can see just how stuck in their beliefs some of those Americans are when they are calling on their
Constitutional rights to go around spreading Covid with no thought of their collective responsibility to their fellow citizens whatsoever.
No -one, it was just semi-humorously picking up on Tim’s and Cat’s comments (to the effect) that if Geof believes the UK will be applying to re-join the EU in 10 years he must also believe in faeries at the bottom of his garden.
Agreed - but will it happen?
It is an uphill struggle - Biden is not a flawless candidate and Trump is openly interfering with the election process.
There is good focussed opposition to Trump - the very hard hitting videos/ads from the Lincoln Project for instance and the polls are against him but Trump is fully prepared to fight dirty - opposing him without getting dragged down to his level will be a challenge.
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I’m fairly confident Trump is toast now, he’s way behind in the polls and with CV now rampant again in many Republican states the floating voters will pick Biden as the least worst, how ironic that is.
and where will that leave Doris?
It’s probably a mistake to put to much faith in polls, Hillary had the polls, even the popular vote but still lost. In any case, as I said, Trump will happily fight dirty.
Trump calls him sleepy Joe Biden but I think he’s Creepy Joe Biden…I don’t like the way he pets and kisses young girls…it turns my stomach over and listening to him talking about kids stroking the hairs on his legs when he got out of a swimming pool…yuk…
My favourite democrat is Robert F Kennedy Junior…
My SF prompt advises me that I have 666 unread posts. Is this an omen? Should I take heed? Anyone recommend a good exorcist?
Don’t say @graham, we already have a contract signed in both our bloods, but I may need a locum if he takes time out, his exorcism practice is very onerous, as many of us are much-bedevilled 
Hummm
Click on your mugshot (top right) and open up your list at the bottom of which is a 
Dismiss
That should do it 
Thank you, Master. I have returned to my mattress :from my hovering position 50 cm above it, my head has stopped rotating on its atlas/axis at 45 rpm, and the crucifix has upended itself on my bedroom wall.
It was the Hummm that did it, Old Nick never liked it up 'im. 
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It’s a bit of a hypothetical question. The UK could discuss this with the EU and would probably get a sympathetic hearing, but it isn’t going to happen.
The people who got into power by cheating and lying and using every trick in the book, aren’t suddenly going to change their minds and say “Terribly sorry, we seem to have made a silly mistake!”
In four years time they will be saying “We’ve done the hard work and turned the corner and everything is beginning to get better and if it hadn’t been for Covid-19, we would already be the richest, happiest country in the world. Give us another 5 years to finish the job.”
Some people will vote for that.
The alternative is to start back at the bottom rung and spend a couple of difficult years trying to get back in. In those circumstances, it might seem preferable to stay with the snakes rather than go for the ladder.